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New XML Tools on IBM Alphaworks Site

March 15, 1999

Liora Alschuler

The Seybold Report on Internet Publishing
Special to XML.com

Java-based editor and parser

IBM has extended its support for XML by posting a free XML editor called Xeena on its IBM alphaworks Web site. Keynoting the Thursday session of the Xtech 99 conference, Marie Wieck also announced version 2 of the popular XML4J parser written in Java and a forthcoming version for C++. The C++ parser, dubbed XML4C, which will be available by the end of the month for AIX and NT shipping with most of the features of XML4J 2.0.

Xeena, like Vervet, is an editor for XML data, not for XML documents. It was developed to support IBM’s own use of XML for test generation parameters for processor verification. The IBM Research Laboratory in Haifa, Israel, wrote a DTD and then an editor to support the DTD, then realized they could generalize the tool to support arbitrary DTDs. (See also Robin Cover's coverage.)

XML4J 2.0 features a selectable API, the DOM or SAX, support for XCatalog which locates files such as style sheets associated with an instance, improved speed, and the ability to validate only the changed sections of a document. Wieck announced that version 2 of the Vervet editor will use XML4J 2.0 taking advantage of this feature. The new C++ parser comes with a C/COM wrapper and will support SAX only until DOM extensions are available for C++.

For more information, see alphaworks.